I basically missed out on the gamecube during this gen, now I'm trying to make it up...
Its a shame i never gave the purple lunchbox a shot.

It was definitely a great console, my favorite of all time. If u get a chance to play some of its great games you should

There are some flaws in your retro-plan. For one, the controller. The wavebird came later because that's when the technology was feasible and affordable. $50 for a controller wouldn't go over well, at all, in 2001, especially on a Nintendo console. I say 2001 because the 2000 launch date is simply unrealistic. That extra year of tech gave the GC a noticeable improvement in capabilities over the PS2. Plus, game development times can't be sped up with a magic wish wand. We can say a 2000 launch would have been better, and it would have been, but there's no reason to believe it would have been feasible for Nintendo, not while maintaining the quality of the GC. (and it was indeed a very high quality console with great games)

I still think it could have had more success with a good design and DVD playback, but only if the cost remained lower than the PS2 launch, and dropped to $199 within a year.

But if price could not be kept low, a nice modern design would have helped still, by at least 50%. Simply because people DO "judge a book by its cover." To think a purple box would sell to a broad audience was very poor foresight.

You could be right about wavebird controller, I just thought it would be cool to have at launch instead of as an addon but wouldnt be necessary to increase sales/public image. As far as console needing extra time, ive read that N64 was ready in 95 but games werent ready, I thought it was the same for GC. And with games like Perfect Dark, Rogue Squadron, RE Zero, Dinosaur Planet I meant if they were planned as GC games from the get go instead of starting/releasing as N64 titles, that could have def sped up the development. Also with games like Galaxy, Twilight Princess, DKC Returns development wouldnt have needed to be sped up, just made in place of Sunshine, Wind Waker, Konga, Jungle Beat.

If it had launched in silver/black with Perfect Dark and Zelda: Majora's Mask and followed up with Conker's Bad Fur Day in fall 2000, used full sized DVD, and was marketed initially more to teenagers/adults, it would've fared a lot better.

XBox would've been dead on arrival, both the PS2 and GameCube would have too large of a headstart.

I'd say

PS2- 100-110 million
GCN - 55-65 million
XBox - 15 million

To launch in fall 2000, it would probably have to cost $299.99 though, but that's OK. Still price parity with the PS2.

This tread is pretty ridiculous. You're basically asking what if the Gamecube did everything different and got more big exclusives.

Perhaps the Gamecube had to happen for Nintendo to learn what not to do.

Actually a lot of the mistakes they made were pretty stupid.

You don't give the market leader an 18 month headstart, the N64 had run its course by about 2000 anyway.

The GameCube hardware was finished by 2000, they sat around for like a year basically handing the market to Sony and even letting Microsoft come in late and upstage them for launch with Halo. Microsoft basically completed the entire XBox project in half the time. There were a lot of games that barely ran on the N64 anyway, Zelda: Majora's Mask didn't work without the Expansion Pak, and basically Perfect Dark didn't either (you could play very limited modes). Those games would've been better served as GameCube launch titles IMO.

Also, Miyamoto's creative fetishes or whatever should've been put on lockdown. No purple GameCube (or only as a limited release one-off color released later on), no cell-shaded Zelda before a realistic Zelda, no weird Z-button or tiny d-pad, etc. etc. Make great games, buddy, leave the hardware design decisions to someone else.

What was the point of getting Resident Evil exclusive if you were going to tie it to a system that looked like something Fisher Price would make? It just didn't make sense. Too many conflicting POVs.

They should've made the system intially for teens/adults and let the N64 cater more for kids for a couple years.

Uhmmm... nobody is denying a lot of mistakes was made with the Gamecube. And clearly those mistakes were noted with the Wii.

Not really. The Wii was a complete retreat from the traditional core gaming console for Nintendo, a position they shouldn't have been in if they had executed the GameCube better.

The Wii was its own thing. Even though it generated tremendous profit for Nintendo for 3-4 years there, I think over a 10 year haul they'd have been better off if the GameCube had done well, locked the XBox/MS out of the industry, and then overtaken Sony with this generation in all likelyhood IMO with their $600 PS3 mistake.

Nintendo never really went for the core gaming audience in a significant way. They generally relied on the 3rd parties to fill that void on all their platforms.

How would Nintendo have locked MS out of the industry? For that to even be a possibility Nintendo would have had to make the Wii about as powerful as the PS3 or 360.

Basically you're suggesting Nintendo should have done everything different in spite of their great success in sales and profits.